Sunday, May 20, 2012

The Beauty and Complexity of the English Language

Professor Ernest Brennecke of Columbia is credited with inventing a sentence that can be made to have eight different meanings by placing ONE WORD in all possible positions in the sentence: "I hit him in the eye yesterday."

The word is "ONLY".

The Message:

1. ONLY I hit him in the eye yesterday. (No one else did)

2. I ONLY hit him in the eye yesterday. (Did not slap him)

3. I hit ONLY him in the eye yesterday. (I did not hit others)

4. I hit him ONLY in the eye yesterday. (I did not hit outside the eye)

5. I hit him in ONLY the eye yesterday. (Not other organs)

6. I hit him in the ONLY eye yesterday. (He doesn't have another eye)

7. I hit him in the eye ONLY yesterday. (Not today)

8. I hit him in the eye yesterday ONLY. (Did not wait for today)

This is the beauty and complexity of the English language.

Sent by Pradip Nahata

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